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Broadcast

The first season of Legend of the Seeker, which contains twenty-two episodes, was originally broadcast from November 2008 to May 2009. The plot is loosely based on that of the first Sword of Truth novel, Wizard's First Rule.

The series' second season, based (again, loosely) on The Stone of Tears began in November 2009. This season saw Tabrett Bethell join the other three main cast members in earning star billing for her role as Cara.

Minor characters

Differences from the novels

Although Legend of the Seeker is based upon the Sword of Truth novels, it is not a direct translation of the books into television format. It is more like a re-imagining of them.

Plot

Each season of Legend of the Seeker has an overarching plot which is derived from one of the Sword of Truth novels. The central conflict remains the same, and some of the major events from the novels are included, but the television series tells what is essentially an entirely different story. Many episodes tell entirely isolated stories, that have no direct comparison within the novels, and that do not have any affect on the overarching major plot of the season.

Characters

Legend of the Seeker, includes many characters from the novels, although often with different roles, relationships, backgrounds, or abilities.

Kahlan is portrayed in the TV series as having a high degree of martial prowess: she is an skilled dagger-fighter who often engages in close-quarters combat against multiple opponents. At the beginning of the first season, she was not the last Confessor nor the Mother Confessor, although both came true eventually. Dennee was her sister by blood and the two shared a traumatic childhood marked by abuse at the hands of their father, who was stonecarver rather than a king.

Darken Rahl is Richard's half-brother rather than father, and both are sons of Panis Rahl. During the first season, Darken Rahl does not demonstrate any personal magical ability. Instead, it is stated repeatedly that he keeps a number of sorcerers in his employment who to provide him with magic. However, an episode in the second season does acknowledge that the House of Rahl is a magically powerful bloodline.

The wizard Giller, who in Wizard's First Rule worked to oppose Rahl, is portrayed in the TV series as a villain, one of Rahl's hired sorcerers.

Richard and Jennsen share a mother and it is unknown whether they share Panis Rahl as a father. Her name was Taralyn.

Nicci's physical features were also different, at first she was had dark hair, then later after she was killed and resurrected she became blond. Also she stole Richard Rahl's Han becoming the most powerful sorceress.

Richard in the TV series was born a powerful wizard (not as a War Wizard) because he belonged to 2 powerful magical bloodlines that is Rahl and Zorander. (not because he possess Additive and Subtractive magic)

Cara had an older sister who was not taken to be Mord-Sith.

Magic

The rules by which magic operates in Legend of the Seeker differ considerably from those in the Sword of Truth novels. The distinction between Additive and Subtractive magic has been eliminated, and the difference between the two orders of wizards is largely ignored. In the TV series, wizards use incantations and hand gestures to cast magic, something which the novels make no mention of. This is likely a result of the transition to the audiovisual medium of television, which would have difficulty presenting an entirely mental process like that described in the novels.

In the TV series, the effects of a Confessor's magic—called "Confession" within the program—are not permanent, but are removed upon the Confessor's death. Although the use of Confessor power is shown to be physically exhausting, the TV series, unlike the books, does not appear to place a strict limit on the frequency with which a person can employ that power. When the Con Dar appeared in the an episode of Legend of the Seeker, it was presented not as a destructive energy, but as an enhanced form of normal Confession, which did not require physical contact, and which affected multiple targets simultaneously.

Magical devices such as Quillions are also much more common in the television series. The magical devices known as Rada-Han are much less common in the TV series, however.